Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
by CHARITY SMITH
Ironwood — It appears Mother Nature heard the pleas of area ski resorts and enthusiasts crying out for snow and made many area children happy to boot. On Tuesday night, between 4 and 5 inches of snow fell across the Gogebic Range and more was expected to come, according to the National Weather Service.
“We’re looking at persistent lake affect snow to continue on and off through (today),” said Matt Zika, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Marquette. “Generally, an additional 6 to 10 inches of snow seems realistic. Higher amounts may be up in the Porkies. I think the Porkies are going to do pretty well out of this event.”
He said that lake effect snow was expected to continue on and off on Wednesday and throughout the day today. He said it should taper off later this evening.
Due to the inclement weather many area schools closed Wednesday, including Hurley, Mercer, Ironwood, Bessemer, Wakefield-Marenisco, Ewen-Trout Creek and Ontonagon school districts. Students in Watersmeet had a distance learning day.
According to Zika, the Gogebic Range should expect more calm weather over the weekend, but temperatures are expected to fall. Sunday into Monday, Zika said to expect some of the coldest weather so far this season, and windchills of around minus 25 Farenheit. He said winds out of the northwest could bring more lake effect snow.
“If we just get through those couple of colder days —Sunday and Monday — things look pretty tranquil at least for a week to 10 days,” said Zika. “The pattern suggests that things are going to moderate and there will be a pretty tranquil stretch through the middle part of January and maybe by the middle of the month, it looks like we may get into a colder pattern again.”
As of Wednesday morning, the region has received 66.2 inches of snow this season, with more snow accumulating by the minute.
With only 84.4 inches of snow recorded in Ironwood last season, the region is on a path to exceed that, said Zika.
